..."They cannot see how much of the misery of human life is derived from the indulgence of wrath" - William Henry Seward

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Telecom Immunity

Good new on the Telecom Immunity front. Clinton and Obama will break away from campaining to travel back to Washington to vote no on the Intel version of FISA (that's the one where immunity is granted to the law-breaking telecom companies).

Glenn Greenwald has a good piece on what the push back from Chris Dodd, John Edwards, and others against Telecom Immunity. He does, however, remind us all that the fight is not over, the White House and its supporters will not give up the fight. It is important, as Greenwald notes, that, "As the events of the last two months demonstrate, if citizen opposition is channeled the right way, it can make a genuine difference in affecting the course of events in Washington. Defeating telecom immunity will keep alive the lawsuits that will almost certainly reveal to some extent what the Government did in illegally spying on Americans over the last six years or, at the very least, produce a judicial adjudication as to its illegality. And, in turn, the effects from that could be extremely significant. Because victories are so rare, it's easy to get lulled into believing that none of these campaigns are ever effective and that citizens can never affect any of it, which is precisely why it's so important to remind ourselves periodically of how untrue that proposition is."

The fight is not over, but by keeping the pressure on Congress, the rule of law will win.